Mark Cook was convicted by a jury on June 6 of two counts of Child Molestation, one a Class A felony and the second a Class B felony.
Cook recently received his punishment for that conviction. He was sentenced to 46 years in prison with seven and a half years suspended. Washington County Prosecutor Dustin Houchin said even with the various programs to earn time off, he expects Cook to spend the next two decades in the department of corrections. “I was pleased with the results,” Houchin said. “These were serious crimes and we were glad to obtain such a lengthy sentence.” Houchin said it’s always a risk to go to trial. “We just went to trial with everything we had and it turned out well,” he said. Cook was arrested and charged in August of 2011 from a series of incidents that took place in 2009. According to the PC Affidavit, it was alleged that Cook had a sexual encounter on numerous occasions with a 13-year-old victim. Cook denied the sexual encounter with the victim but did admit to touching her inappropriately. ‘These kinds of cases are difficult,” said Washington County Prosecutor Dustin Houchin. “We are hesitant to put the children through the procedure. We did and we secured justice, which is good for the family and good for the community.”